Undergraduate Program
Senior Matters
Junior Matters
Important Dates - Jr & Sr
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Departmental Courses:
Your list of Departmental courses serves two purposes: it
defines the physics program you need to graduate and it forms one of the
elements used in computing the
departmental average for the purpose of class ranking,
honors, and prizes. This note describes how the list of
Departmentals is determined.
The list of
Departmentals submitted to the Registrar shows that you
have met the course requirements to graduate with an
undergraduate degree in physics. A minimum list, consisting of eight courses,
encompasses most, but not all, of the core curriculum that the Physics
Department thinks every major should have taken. University rules require
at least eight Departmentals.
(Note that JP's and the senior thesis are not counted as
Departmentals. They are, however, included in the departmental
average.)
Your list
of Departmentals must include all of the core courses you take in
the Physics Department from PHY 208 through the 300-level, as
listed in the Undergraduate Announcement - typically PHY 208 (Quantum
Mechanics), PHY 301 (Thermal Physics), PHY 304 (E&M), PHY 305 (Quantum
Mechanics), PHY 312 (Advanced Lab), as well as the required Complex Analysis
(MAT 317, 331, or MAE 306) and one other 300-level math course. The
remaining course or courses should be 300-level "cognates:" courses filling out
your plan of study for the physics degree. These can be 300- or 400-level
physics courses, graduate physics courses, courses from other technical
departments such as biology or engineering, or even departments such as
history, as long as the course number is greater than or equal to 300 and the
course fits into a well-defined program of study. This flexibility is built into
the major to accomodate interdisciplinary study that uses physics as a
backbone. Some 300- or 400-level courses, notably organic chemistry, do not
qualify. The determination of which courses are acceptable is made on a
case-by-case basis
by the Departmental Representative.
While you
are a physics major, there are various forms on which you are asked to
declare which of your courses are Departmentals. You should make
your best guess, but not worry about it, beyond insuring that you have
at least the minimum eight needed to graduate. Most of the
designations are
required, as indicated in the previous paragraph. Where there is
flexibility, the only criterion would be to maximize your
departmental average. This exercise in optimization is done for you by the
Departmental Representative just before you graduate. After
including the required courses and determining which allowable cognates
have the highest grades, the DepRep will add other qualifying courses to
the list if they raise your average. This service is provided at no
extra charge!
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